of the different roads." In the eyes of the English the party was to be an embassy. In the eyes of the Indians, a party of scouts reconnoitering. This is clear from the orders given by Contrecœur to Jumonville.
Three days later, on the 26th, this "embassy" was at Gist's plantation, where, according to Gist's report to Washington, they "would have killed a cow and broken everything in the house, if two Indians, whom he [Gist] had left in charge of the home, had not prevented them."
From Gist's, La Force had advanced within five miles of Great Meadows, as Gist ascertained by their tracks on the Indian trail. Then—although the English commander was within an hour's march—the French retraced their steps to the summit of Laurel Hill, and, descending deep into the obscure valley on the east, built a hut under the lee of the precipice and rested from their labors! Here they remained throughout the 27th, while Washington's scouts were running their legs off in the attempt to locate them, and the young lieutenant-colonel was in a fever of anxiety
